


Warm Against the Cold Night

by orphan_account, woahnope



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Dan is a ray of sunshine, Fluff, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, phil is sad and uninspired
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-15 00:47:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9212219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account, https://archiveofourown.org/users/woahnope/pseuds/woahnope
Summary: AU where Phil has a complicated inner world. He wanders into a tea shop and meets Dan, higher than life itself. Dan changes Phil’s mind about light and dark.





	

**Author's Note:**

> hello, i have awakened. am uploading [this fic](http://dannphils.tumblr.com/post/152810592282/warm-against-the-cold-night) from my d&p trashblog that i've since deleted.
> 
> title from jack garratt's song [breathe life](https://open.spotify.com/track/7zTQN1PV97yL8wXlvKMr3T). i’m procrastinating. i also own neither dan nor phil nor jack garratt nor his song. enjoy the fluff fest!

To most people who knew him, Phil Lester was jovial, cheerful, and always had a smile plastered on his face and a bad joke ready to fire. He never seemed to be sad. He never questioned life. “Life is worth living, man,” he’d say, “so just live it! Do what you want, and don’t listen to the people around you who are trying to pull you down.”

To the people who followed his online antics, Phil Lester was AmazingPhil. AmazingPhil, someone who always had a good idea, was always creative, loved colour, and lived in the moment. Someone who made people laugh and made other people happy, even if he had to face his greatest fears or taste food he hated on camera. AmazingPhil was kind, understanding and patient. Strange things happened to him all the time, but he took them all in his stride, never letting anything pull him down.

Yet, people couldn’t be more wrong.

You see, Phil Lester had a dark soul. He overthought more often than not, and though those thoughts never showed in his interactions with friends, family and the Internet, once he closed the door and flicked the bolt shut, a worn notebook would be unbound. He’d ponder about the universe, what would happen at the end of the world, why people were so elusive. He questioned the concept of colour and wondered whether animals truly felt joy. He thought so much that he felt that almost everything was lifeless, that everything deserved to be questioned, that everything was a faux. Reality was but a concept to him, for most of the time, he lived within his own brain. None of the thoughts escaped his brain or the notebook.

When the laptop was brought out of sleep or when Phil left the house, he was jovial once again, hiding those thoughts deep within the crevices of his heart, never to be seen by a living soul.

It was once a chilly winter night. Phil couldn’t sleep. The moon was too bright, the notebook on his bedside table tempting him to crawl back into his thoughts. “Damn it,” he said, as he lifted his covers and picked up his phone.

It was 3:21AM.

He muttered some choice words under his breath, before getting out of bed and picking up a black jacket. He pulled it down his torso, enjoying the warmth it provided his already shivering body. He grabbed his keys and some loose change, just in case he needed it. His gaze turned towards the notebook begging for his attention. Resisting the urge to pick it up, he paced quickly out of his room, down the stairs, towards the door of his apartment.

“A walk in the park would do me good, I guess.”

The park was deserted, as expected. It still shocked Phil, though. He’d regularly look out his window, seeing innocent children playing on the swings, lovers on a night out and the occasional person with a book in their hand - all absorbed in their bubbles of colour and joy. Either way, he very much preferred this version of the park. Freezing, dark and empty. It was almost inviting.

As it appeared, all the shops in the vicinity of the park were closed, except for a quaint shop near the end of the trail. Winston’s Signature Teas. The lights in the shop were dim, and to Phil’s surprise, there a person at the cashier who looked like he needed some company. Phil’s inquisition got the better of him, and he made his way into the shop.

The person manning the cashier was tall and looked no older than twenty-five. His hair was brown. Maybe his hair was what absorbed the light in the shop; maybe his hair was what left the shop hopelessly dim. He had fringe that sheltered his face as he has his head bent downwards, swallowed by the light from his phone. Phil’s eyes wandered downwards near the man’s shirt collar. The name tag he was wearing was partially obscured by dinosaur and dog stickers. His name, however, was written with silver sharpie in big block letters, standing in stark contrast against the elegant black of the name tag. “DAN” was his name.

“Hello, um, Dan,” Phil said, pulling the man on the other side of the cashier out of his technological trance. Dan yanked his head up, brown eyes wide, a friendly smile creeping onto his face.

“Hello, sir, what may I get you this fine morning?”

“A regular English Breakfast tea will do, no milk and no sugar, thanks,” Phil said, as he reached into his jacket pocket for the loose change he brought to the shop. As he placed the coins on the cashier booth, Dan replied, with far too much excitement considering the unearthly hour, that his tea would be done shortly.

Phil took his place at a creaky table not far from the cashier, his mind already going places, suspecting the intentions of possible demons that lurked just around the corner of the shop. His fingers tapped the table in a steady rhythm, in time with the Hozier song playing softly through the speakers in the shop.

“Here’s your tea,” a voice called from behind Phil, “you like that song?”

Phil brought his eyes to meet Dan’s face. “Thank you, and yes, I do like that song. From Eden, isn’t it? A classic, that one.” He hadn’t expected so many words to come spilling out of his mouth. Funny enough, he felt almost at ease with this Dan boy who served him tea. What a charming lad. So happy for 3.45AM.

“I like this song, I guess, but I like Muse a lot more. Their new album Drones is a masterpiece,” Dan said. Then started an hour-long conversation about music and about each of their lives. In the span of an hour, Phil learned that Dan had a day job in park maintenance, and that he worked the night shift at the tea shop. The shop belonged to his older brother Adrian and his friend Winston. He was from Wokingham, but moved to London after he got promoted by the parks board. His day job kept him living, but his night job kept him alive.

“What’s so interesting about working in a tea shop on the night shift? I don’t reckon you have many customers at this hour,” Phil questioned, his fingers already itching for a pen to write down what he learned about this boy.

“Well, I suppose people like you who walk into the shop make it a little more interesting, but every night I meet someone new.

“That person may be someone in drag craving an Earl Grey to treat a headache. That person may be a student with baggy eyes after studying for their Algebra test. Yesterday an elderly woman walked into the shop thinking it was the dentist. I told her no, but she refused to leave until I gave her something that cleaned her teeth… so I just served her a peppermint tea,” Dan spoke, words tumbling through his pale, thin lips like he could talk about his customers all day. He let out a laugh that filled the stagnant air in the shop. Joy mixed with the smell of tea leaves and a soothing Midsummer’s Night Sky candle.

To Phil, Dan was happiness personified. His face was glowing, his laugh refreshing and his thoughts indescribable. He needed to pen this down in his notebook, before he forgot what it felt like, just so that he could flip to that page and smile whenever his thoughts engulfed him whole.

“Sorry I can’t stay ‘til the end of your shift, but I need to run now. Work, and all that,” Phil lied through his teeth. Earlier, he told Dan he worked at Asda packing groceries for delivery.

“Alright then, it’s been a nice time chatting with you. See you around!” Dan said, a smile playing on his lips. Phil walked quickly towards the door, waving to Dan as he walked out the door.

_He won’t see me around soon. I’m not ready to reciprocate that happiness. Maybe one day when I’m ready, but just not anytime soon._

_Phil_  
06-28-17  
Mood: In love  
Music: Breathe Life - Jack Garratt

_+_

_I wouldn’t compliment myself for what I’ve become_  
Tell her I owe it to her  
Tell her I owe it to her  
I wouldn’t praise myself for every good thing I’ve done  
Tell her I owe it to her  
Tell her I owe it to her

 _Tell her I owe it to - every heartbeat_  
Tell her I owe it to - every exhale  
Tell her I owe it to, owe it to her - hands upon my chest

_Oh, won’t you breathe life into these dead lungs I keep under my coat  
And keep life warm against the cold night as our bodies grow old_

_I know when to give up and I know when to breathe_  
Believe me, I owe it to her  
Tell her I owe it to her

 _Tell her I owe it to - every heartbeat_  
Tell her I owe it to - every inhale  
Tell her I owe it to, owe it to her - hands upon my chest

 _Oh, won’t you breathe life into these dead lungs I keep under my coat_  
And keep life warm against the cold night as our bodies grow old  
Oh, won’t you breathe life into these dead lungs I keep under my coat  
And keep life warm against the cold night as our bodies grow old

_Take my silence as a warning  
I will not deter your mourning_

_Oh, won’t you breathe life into these dead lungs I keep under my coat_  
And keep life warm against the cold night as our bodies grow old  
Oh, won’t you breathe life into these dead lungs I keep under my coat  
And keep life warm against the cold night as our bodies grow old

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on [tumblr](http://um-dont.tumblr.com) too, but you can read more of my work outside youtube RPF on [woahnope](http://archiveofourown.org/users/woahnope) :-)


End file.
